Aerating apparatus.



0.4 ZISTEL.

AERATING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED 001229, 1913.

Patenteasept. 1, 1914.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l.

ISIUQJQS;

277 L @YEA/7105, @ce A I j? mi O. ZISTEL.

AERATING APPARATUS.

APPLIOATION FILED 061229 1913.

Patented Sept; 1

2 SHEETS- SHEET 2.

@@ODU- UNITED sTATEs PATENT oEErcE.

OSCAR ZISTEL, OF SANDUSKY, OHIO.

AEEATING Arrnm'rus.-

To all whom t may' concern:

Be it known that I, @scan ZIsTEL, a citizen of the United States,residing at Sandusky, in the county of Erier and State of Uhio, haveinvented a certain new and useful Improvement in Aerating Apparatus, ofwhich the following is a full, clear, and exact description, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings. v

This invention relates to an apparatus for aerating water contained infish tanks which are carried by vehicles, and wherein live fish arestored for transportation.

The apparatus of my invention is particularly adapted for use on railwaycars which are equipped with tanks for live fish transportation. In suchcars, it is necessary to employ comparatively small tanksbecause of thelimitations of the cars, and for reasons of economy, as many fish aspossible are placed in each tank. In consequence of these facts, thereis insufficient air in the water for the number of fish which are placedin the tanks, and to supply the requisite amount of air, various devicesare used. Those devices heretofore used with which I am familiar employeither a gasolene engine for operating an air pump to supply air to thetanks, or the airis supplied direct from the pump located on the enginewhich is used in connection with the air brake system. The use of thegas engine is now prohibited by practically all of the railway linesbecause of the presence of the iniiammablc liquid fuel required for theengine; and the second method of supplying air to the tanks h as thedisadvantage of making it necessary to keep the car coupled to theengine all the time there are fish inthe tank. This use of the engineand its withdrawal from service while the car is side tracked 7 furthepurpose of loading and unloading it,l

the car axle, is either stopped or is running Specification of LettersPatent.

below a predetermined speed. This and further objects I attain by anapparatus set forth in the following claims and illustrated 1n theaccompanying drawings forming a part hereof wherein- Figure l is atransverse, vertical section through a car provided with my apparatus,certain parts of the electrical equipment be ingshown diagrammatically,and certain irrelative elements of the. car structure being omitted;Fig. 2 is a sectional detail taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. l' and showsthe 'principal air pump and its driving connec- `t1on with the axle ofthe car;l Fig: 3 is a horizontal section through one of the fish tanksas indicated by the line 3 3 of Figi; and Figs. 4 and 5 are a plan andcentral `vertical section,respectively, of the air jet employed in thefish tank, the latter figure being taken on the line 5-5 of Fig. 1i.

Taking up a detailed description of the invention by the use ofreference numerals, l and 2 represent the side walls and 3 the floor ofthe body of a railway car which is supported in the usual manner uponsuitable,

trucks, one of the axles of one of the trucks being shown at 4 A(thewell known structure of the truck being omitted to afford a clearerillustration of my invention). Upon the floor of the car and near theside walls are placed the fish tanks 5, two of such tanks being shown inthe drawings as sufficient to illustrate my invention, although inpractice any number may be employed, the number being divided equallyalong the two side walls of the car. Each of the tanks is provided witha cover 6 which is held in place by clamps 7. Lying upon the bottom ofeach of the tanks is a frame 8 which is composed of tubing. As will beseen in Fig. 3, this Patented Sept. 1, 1914:.-y Application iled October29, 1913. Serial No. 797,951. i

gitudiual tubes which extend substantially from end to end of the tankand which have their ends connected by transverse tubes. Projectingupwardly from the various tubes of the frame and spaced a slightdistance apart, are nozzles 9 (shown in detail in Figs. i and 5) whichwill be described hereinafter. l

Connected preferably to the longitudinal tube of each of the frames 8which lies nearest the side wall of the car, and at substantially itscenter, is a pipe 10 which rises upwardly through a hole in the top ofthe tank to where it has connection with a manifold 11, one of suchmanifolds extending along each side of the top of the car and beingsupported from the car top by suitable hangers 12. Connecting themanifolds 11 is a pipe 13 which is provided with depending branches 14and 15. The lower end of the pipe 14 has connection, through a flexiblehose section 16, with the discharge end 17 of airconductors leading froma rotary pump 18 which is of the cycloidal type, the casing of the pumpbeing broken away'to show a portion of the interior thereof. These pumpsare capable of moving large volumes of air ata comparatively lowpressure, and, since it is the quantity lof air that is desired in thiswork, (the pressure produced by these pumps being all that is requiredfor' the purpose), the above type of pump is especially suitable for usein connection with my apparatus. These pumps, of course, act

in either direction according to vthe direction of rotation of theshaft, and what would be the outlet side of the pump when the shaft isrotated in one direction would become the inlet if the direction ofrotation were reversed. Now, because the shaft 19 of the pump is driventhrough its pulleyT 20, the belt 21 and the pulley 22 from the aXle 4 ofthe car truck, it is necessary to provide an arrangement of pipes andvalves whereby the flow of air from either side of the pump will bedirected toward the tanks, regardless of the direction of rotation ofthe axle; and this arrangement of pipes and valves constitute, what Ihave referred to above as the air conductors.

Referring particularly to F ig. 2, each opening of the pump hasconnection with a substantially horizontal branch pipe 23, one end ofeach of said branches being connected to a substantially vertical. pipe24. The free end of each of the horizontal branches is fitted with aninwardly opening check valve 25, and between their connections with thepump and their ends which have connection with the vertical pipe 24, thebranches 23 are provided with check valves 2G which open toward the pipe24, thereby permitting air to How from the pump to the pipe 24 andthence to the outlet 17, said 'valves 2G also acting to preventthereversal of such flow.

From the description thus far it will be seen that when the car istraveling in a direction to rotate the axle 4 as indicated by thearrow,.the pump will be driven in a direction to vdraw air in throughthe lower of the valves25 and through the right hand end of the lowerbranch 23 and discharge it through the left hand endof the upper `branch23, through the valve 2G and through the outlet 17 to the ipe 14 fromwhere it is conducted by way o the pipe 13 to the manifolds 11 andthence downwardly through the pipes 10 to the tubular frames 8, escapingthrough the nozzles 9 into the water contained within the tanks 5. Ifthe car is traveling in the opposite direction, the course of the airthrough the pump will be reversed, the upper check valve 25 and thelower check valve 26 being actuated to direct the current of air throughthe course previously described, to the tanks.

To provide for conditions under which either an insuflicient amount ofair, or no air at all is supplied through the pump 18 as, for instance,when the. car is traveling below a predetermined speed, or when it isstopped altogether, l include in my apparatus a second or auxiliary pumpof the same type as that just described and indicated at 27. The pump 27is shown in the drawings as supported by a shelf 28 which is carriedbythe side wall 1 of the car, and mounted upon the same shelf is anelectric motor 29 which has connection, through its shaft 30, with thepump. The electric motor is supplied with current through a wire 31 froma storage battery 32 which may be located at any convenient place on thecar. A second wire 33 passes from the opposite side of the motor througha switch 34 and wire to a contact spring 36 which forms one member of asecond switch, the other member' whereof is formed by a contact spring37 which is connected through the wire 38 with the opposite side of thestorage battery 32. Mounted upon that end of the shaft 19 of the pump 18which projects toward the side wall 2 of the car is a governor whichcomprises a collar 39 that is pinned to the shaft and that hasconnection, through springs 40, with a sliding collar 41. rl"he collar41 carries a disk 42 which is adapted to bear against the end of theleaf spring 30 and press it against the leaf spring 37. rIhe springs 40carry governor balls 43 .which separate as the speed of the shaft 19increases and in so doing retract the sleeve 41 and wijgdraw the disk 42from the spring 3G, peilfitting the springs and 37 to separate and thusopening the circuit which normally supplies the motor 29 with current.From this it will be seen that when the car is traveling below apredetermined speed or is stopped, the apparatus will continue to.operate through the auxiliary pump 27. An upwardly opening check valve44 is placed within the branch 15 of the pipe 13 to prevent air escapingthrougli the pump 27 while the pump 18 is operating. I also provide thepipes 10 with valves 45 so that any one or a number of the tanks maybeeut out of the system at will; and by means of the electric switch 34the operation of the motor 29 may be stopped when desired. i

I have included in my apparatus, means for restoring the battery 32during the op eration of the pump 18 which comprises a generator 46,driven from the shaft 19 of the pump 18 and which has connection to thebattery through the wires 47 and 48, the

License? circuit represented by the wires 47 and 48 also including anautomatic regulator 49 of anyapproved type, for opening the circuit whenthe battery is suticiently charged.

The pump 18 and the parts associated therewith are mounted upon a.platform 50 which has one of its edges hinged at 52 to the Hoor of thecar andits opposite edge supported 'by any suitable number of springs53. This provides a yielding supportfor the pump and generator, andcompensates for the vibrations between the body of the car and thetruck, assuring the proper. tension of the belt 2l at all times.

For convenience, l have shown much of my apparatus conventionally anddiagrammatically, and l wish it to be understood that I do not condnemyself to the construction iiiustrated in the drawing further than thatrequired by the terms of the claims.

Returning to the nozzles 9 which have been mentioned hereinbefore andwhich are illustrated in Figs. 4 and 5, each one comprises a threadednipple 54 which is arranged to be screwed into one of a number of holestapped in the tubular frame 8 and the nipple 1s locked in position by alock nut 55. A' stem 56 having a needle point, projects upwardly fromthe upper end of the nipple '54and is central with respect thereto, andextending longitudinally through the nipple on either side of the stem56- are ports 57. A funnelshaped cup 58 has its downwardly extendingportion 59 threaded upon the nipple 54 and the portion 59 isprovidcdwith a central bore 60 which.

, has its upper end reduced indiameter at 61 to 'form a shoulder or seat62 which coperates with the' tapered t,upper end of the stem 56 tosecure the desired adjustment between the parts, when the portion 59ofthe cup 58 is screwed along the nipple 54. By a proper adjustment, theair is caused to issue from the bore 6l into the interior of the cup ina iaring jet or spray, and thus distributed across the underneathsurface of a perforated plate 63 which extends across the upper end of acup 58, it passes through the perforations ofthe said plate" and isintroduced into the water inl finely divided particles, thereby verythoroughly and effectively aerating the water. rf he advantage of such atreatmentof the air 1s appreciated when it is considered that, withoutso -thorough a distribution of the air, the same would issue from-thejet in a quantity sufficient to produce bubbles of considerable sizewhich would rise immediately to the surface of the water and havel onlya very slight if, in fact, any aerating eli'ect upon the water.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is l. Apparatus fortransporting fish comprising, in combination, a car and a water tankcarried thereby, an air pump, connections for conducting air from thepump to the water within the tank, an"lectric motor for driving saidpump, a storage battery,

and means operated by the prime mover of the car for charging saidbattery.

2. Apparatus for transporting ish,'coml` prising, in combination, a carand a water tank carried thereby, a pump carried by the car, connectionsfor conducting air from the pump to the water within the tank, anelectric motor for driving said pump, a storage battery carried by thecar from which -the motor receives its current, and a generatoroperatively connected to the car axle for charging the battery.

3. Apparatus for transporting `fish, comprising, in combination, a carand a water tank carried thereby, a pump, connections for conducting airfrom the pump to the water within the tank, driving means between thecar axle and the pump, an auxilating the auxiliary pump, a source ofelectric energy carried by the same 4car for supplying current to saidmotor, and means for automatically connecting said source to said motorwhen the car-speed falls below a predetermined rate. A v

4. The combination with a vehicle having an Aaxle and a water tankcarried by the vehicle, of a `pump, connections for conducting air fromthe pump to the water within the tank, driving means between the axleand the pump, an auxiliary pump, connections for conducting air from thelast mentionedpump to the water within the tank, an elec'- tric motorfor driving the auxiliary pump, a source of electric energy carried bythe vehicle, a circuit including the motor, the

source of electric energy, and a switch, and

a governor operated by the first mentioned pump for actuating the switchto close the aforesaid circuit when the speed of said pump falls below apredetermined point.

In testimony whereof, I hereunto atnx my signature in the presence oftwo witnesses. l OSCAR ZISTEL.

lrVitnesses: BRENNAN B. WEST, HUGH B. McGnm.

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